During World War II, Operation Zarboublian was an Allied deception operation, originating in a genuine bid to rescue French Resistance members from detention in Aix-en-Provence and developing into a deception forming part of Operation Span in support of the 1944 landings in southern France.
In late 1943, Resistance groups near Marseilles were informed that captured members were to be taken to Aix and interrogated in a special facility in the Rue Cardinale by the Gestapo. The Special Operations Executive was asked to provide specialist materiel to assist in a rescue mission, but Enigma decrypts had already revealed that the story was disinformation by the Gestapo, aiming to lure resistance fighters into a trap. SOE thus had to prevent the Resistance from launching their rescue mission without revealing to them the source of SOE's information. It was decided by London Controlling Section to tie down German resources by spinning out preparations for the "rescue" mission as long as possible and then to develop it into a subsidiary of Operation Span by claiming that the fighters would be rescued during an Allied landing.
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